Lingo (Dutch game show)
Encyclopedia
Lingo is a Dutch television game show
based on the North American format of the same name. Each episode involves two teams of two people trying to guess and spell words. There are usually six letters, but on a Friday, there are seven. The highest possible amount of money awarded is €5000
.
in 1987 with Michael Reagan
as host and Ralph Andrews
as executive producer. Though it ran for only one season, international versions subsequently appeared in French-speaking Quebec
and several European markets. Among these was the Netherlands where, due to Harry de Winter (who bought the rights), it became a success. He then used his earnings from the series to start his own production company.
François Boulangé was 35 years old when, in 1989, he became end editor of the programme. The reason the show received such a warm reception in the Netherlands, according to François, is that the Netherlands is a country that enjoys puzzles. Also, the American version followed much stricter rules. For example, the candidates weren't allowed to grab the balls. The grabbing is one of the key elements in the version in the Netherlands, and crowds will often cheer for the candidates to grab a green ball.
When the show first aired, because there weren't any computers, the crew went into the country with sheets of paper. Candidates had to write down the words, and from that pool the first candidates were selected.
When Robert ten Brink
was selected as the host, he already had presented the youth news show and was an incumbent announcer.
When Robert ten Brink stopped, end editor François Boulangé succeeded him. He did not find the presentation of the programme very important and saw himself more as a judge then as a presenter. He never watched an episode of the show because he knew the programme from its recording and editing.
The starting team is given the first letter of the unknown word. They then have a short amount of time in which to guess what the word is. The guess must be a valid Dutch word, spelled correctly, and of the correct number of letters. The guess must then be spelled out. However, the word spelled does not have to be the same as the word called out as long as the word spelled is valid. The players may not confer with one another until the game nears the end of the round.
If the word is correctly spelled and in time, the computer will then show certain letters from the guessed word. Letters of the guess that are in the same position as that of the unknown word are shown in red. Letters that appear in the unknown word, yet are in the wrong position, are shown in yellow. Any correct letters which are in the correct position are filled in automatically on the next turn.
If a player fails to think of a word within the time limit, or gives an invalid word, the turn switches to the opposing team. That team then gets a bonus letter: the next correct letter in the unknown word.
Equally, if a team fails to guess the correct word within five turns, the opposing team is given a bonus letter and may try to guess the word. In this sixth turn, the opposing team may now confer.
Teams only get a bonus letter if there are at least two blank spaces remaining. It cannot occur, therefore, that the opposing team is given the full word by a bonus letter.
Unusual words such as verb conjugations (e.g. "speaks") are considered valid words for a team to guess for the sake of giving themselves clues as to the real word, but such words will never be the correct answer.
In 2008 a new rule was added: even though it is the turn of one team, the other team can also guess the word. If this other team is certain they know the word, they can press a button and guess the word. If their guess is incorrect, the score is halved. However, if they are correct, it is doubled and a ball can be drawn. The team has only one chance to guess a word out-of-turn.
Each team has a ball basin, each with 17 blue numbered balls, 1 blue ball with a question mark, 3 green balls and 3 red balls. The numbers on the balls correspond to the numbers on the Lingo card and are crossed off the card if that ball is drawn. The question mark acts as a wild card: if this ball is drawn, the team may choose any number from the Lingo card to be crossed off. However, the ball with that number on it remains in the ball basin, and should that ball be subsequently drawn, the team has effectively wasted a turn.
If a green ball is drawn, it is placed above the ball basin and the team may draw another ball. If a team draws all three green balls, it wins a jackpot, which increases with each correctly-guessed word.
If a player draws a red ball, the team's turn is over and play continues with the other team. Red balls are discarded after having been drawn so that they do not return to the ball basin.
If a team obtains Lingo, that team receives 100 points and is provided with a new Lingo card with new balls. Green balls carry over to a new Lingo card, but red balls do not. Thus, at the start of a new Lingo card, there will again be three red balls in the ball basin.
Currently, the tie-breaker has been taken away and instead replaced by the last word (played on the same basis as above). Because this word has more points than a regular word, there are no longer ties.
In the original version of Lingo transmitted by VARA, the final was faithful to the original 1987 North American version, called "No Lingo".
The team always got five chances of guessing a 5 character word of which the first and fourth character were given. Also the team had a card with 25 even or odd numbers just like in the normal rounds. At the beginning 16 numbers had already been crossed off so that Lingo was almost inevitable if a ball was drawn that was on the lingo card.
The number of attempts needed to guess the word were also the number of balls the team had to draw. i.e. 4 attempts = 4 balls. If the word was not guessed, the team had to draw 6 balls. Here as well the numbers on the balls were crossed off of the card, although not every number was on the card. At 'Lingo' the game was over and the team loses all winnings in the bonus round. If they passed the round without getting Lingo they could choose: play another round (with the chance of doubling the amount of money won, but also the chance of losing everything if 'Lingo' was called), or stop and take home the amount of money won already.
The ball barge in the final also contained a gold colored ball as well as the normal numbered blue balls. If these were drawn the team didn't have to draw anymore balls that round.
From the final the (in Holland) famous sentence was born: staat... niet op de kaart! (is... not present on the card!) which was always called if a ball was drawn which was not present on the lingo card.
Teams have two minutes to guess as many words as they can, with a five-attempt limit at a word. Each successful word guessed in the two-minute round results in the right to draw one ball.
A Lingo card is distributed with 25 numbers on it, with ten numbers (instead of the twelve in the US version) initially crossed off. The team can then draw the number of balls they won. The ball barge contains 15 blue balls. If team successfully makes a Lingo, they win €5000. There are no balls in the bin that contain a question mark. Since 6 February 2009, however, there is a silver ball present. If it is drawn, the team two has possibilities:
Similar to ordinary Lingo, these teams words must correctly guess words and then draw balls. The main difference is that the ball barge has five different colours of balls with the characters B, I, N, G, and O written on them in place of numbers. Every team must try to draw one ball of each colour and draw so that the word BINGO is formed.
The final is played between the two best teams. Both teams get 2.5 minutes to correctly guess as many words as possible.
In 2000, Lingo was taken over by TROS and serious changes were carried out. The duration of the programme was shortened and the 'postcode loterij' could publish the Lingo results. By both modifying the play time and significantly reducing the number of words, the points and therefore the prize money that teams can win continues to diminish. The rules of the show have also changed, particularly the final round (as previously discussed). Also, Nance
became the new host and Michiel Eijsbouts became the new jury.
With Nance's transition from TROS to SBS in September 2005, a new host took over: Lucille Werner, who has previously hosted Get The Picture and Michiel Eijsbouts (the jury) was replaced by JP (Jan Peter Pellemans). Thus, the hosts of the show from pilot to present include:
Until 2000, there were announcers for the introduction of each episode. The names of these announcers are unknown.
was tempted to make official statements about the rumor.
Commercial broadcasting RTL 4 has shown interest in obtaining the rights to the show if they were abandoned by public broadcasting. TROS stated on 17 October that they will keep showing the game, but they wanted to examine how they could adapt the game for a broader public.
On the broadcast of 19 October 2006, Lucille indicated simply that Lingo will continue at TROS. Moreover, this broadcast came after a bet between Robert Jensen and Lucille. This bet implied that she would appear on TV with a deep décolletage. In return, Jensen would participate with Jan Paparazzi on an episode of Lingo. They, however, did not make it to the final.
After 2009 the Lingo show was simply called 'Lingo' again, instead of 'Postcode Lingo', Which means 'Postalcode' Lingo, referring to the fact that in the 'Nationale Postcode Loterij' people would win large prizes based on their postal/zipcode.
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
based on the North American format of the same name. Each episode involves two teams of two people trying to guess and spell words. There are usually six letters, but on a Friday, there are seven. The highest possible amount of money awarded is €5000
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
.
Origins
The original incarnation of the U.S./Canadian game show Lingo debuted in syndicationTelevision syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
in 1987 with Michael Reagan
Michael Reagan
Michael Edward Reagan is a former American radio host and Republican strategist. His nationally syndicated radio show, The Michael Reagan Talk Show, aired on stations throughout the United States on the Premiere Radio Networks before being dropped, after which it moved to Radio America...
as host and Ralph Andrews
Ralph Andrews
Ralph Andrews is an American television producer best known for producing the hit 1960s game show You Don't Say!, the 1970s game show Celebrity Sweepstakes, and the original 1987 version of Lingo....
as executive producer. Though it ran for only one season, international versions subsequently appeared in French-speaking Quebec
Lingo (Quebec game show)
Lingo is a Quebec game show that ran for 439 episodes on Radio-Canada, from 1998 to 2001. It was hosted by longtime actor and radio/TV host Paul Houde.- Main game :...
and several European markets. Among these was the Netherlands where, due to Harry de Winter (who bought the rights), it became a success. He then used his earnings from the series to start his own production company.
François Boulangé was 35 years old when, in 1989, he became end editor of the programme. The reason the show received such a warm reception in the Netherlands, according to François, is that the Netherlands is a country that enjoys puzzles. Also, the American version followed much stricter rules. For example, the candidates weren't allowed to grab the balls. The grabbing is one of the key elements in the version in the Netherlands, and crowds will often cheer for the candidates to grab a green ball.
When the show first aired, because there weren't any computers, the crew went into the country with sheets of paper. Candidates had to write down the words, and from that pool the first candidates were selected.
When Robert ten Brink
Robert ten Brink
Robert ten Brink is a Dutch presenter and actor.He won the Golden TeleVizier-Ring in 1993 for All you need is love reality-TV.In 1997, he was chosen as Holland's most popular personality....
was selected as the host, he already had presented the youth news show and was an incumbent announcer.
When Robert ten Brink stopped, end editor François Boulangé succeeded him. He did not find the presentation of the programme very important and saw himself more as a judge then as a presenter. He never watched an episode of the show because he knew the programme from its recording and editing.
Guessing words
Originally, each team had to guess 5-letter words. Under the current rules, the game is played with 6-letter words and, on Fridays, 7-letter words.The starting team is given the first letter of the unknown word. They then have a short amount of time in which to guess what the word is. The guess must be a valid Dutch word, spelled correctly, and of the correct number of letters. The guess must then be spelled out. However, the word spelled does not have to be the same as the word called out as long as the word spelled is valid. The players may not confer with one another until the game nears the end of the round.
If the word is correctly spelled and in time, the computer will then show certain letters from the guessed word. Letters of the guess that are in the same position as that of the unknown word are shown in red. Letters that appear in the unknown word, yet are in the wrong position, are shown in yellow. Any correct letters which are in the correct position are filled in automatically on the next turn.
If a player fails to think of a word within the time limit, or gives an invalid word, the turn switches to the opposing team. That team then gets a bonus letter: the next correct letter in the unknown word.
Equally, if a team fails to guess the correct word within five turns, the opposing team is given a bonus letter and may try to guess the word. In this sixth turn, the opposing team may now confer.
Teams only get a bonus letter if there are at least two blank spaces remaining. It cannot occur, therefore, that the opposing team is given the full word by a bonus letter.
Unusual words such as verb conjugations (e.g. "speaks") are considered valid words for a team to guess for the sake of giving themselves clues as to the real word, but such words will never be the correct answer.
In 2008 a new rule was added: even though it is the turn of one team, the other team can also guess the word. If this other team is certain they know the word, they can press a button and guess the word. If their guess is incorrect, the score is halved. However, if they are correct, it is doubled and a ball can be drawn. The team has only one chance to guess a word out-of-turn.
Drawing balls
If the word is correctly guessed, the team which guessed the word correctly is granted points and, additionally, each of the two members of the team may draw a ball from the ball basin. Each team has a square card with numbers on it (odd numbers for one team, even for the other) with some numbers crossed off before the start of the game. Each team's ultimate goal is to cross off numbers on the Lingo card (by drawing the appropriate numbered ball) in order to obtain a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of five numbers. In that case, the team is said to have achieved a Lingo.Each team has a ball basin, each with 17 blue numbered balls, 1 blue ball with a question mark, 3 green balls and 3 red balls. The numbers on the balls correspond to the numbers on the Lingo card and are crossed off the card if that ball is drawn. The question mark acts as a wild card: if this ball is drawn, the team may choose any number from the Lingo card to be crossed off. However, the ball with that number on it remains in the ball basin, and should that ball be subsequently drawn, the team has effectively wasted a turn.
If a green ball is drawn, it is placed above the ball basin and the team may draw another ball. If a team draws all three green balls, it wins a jackpot, which increases with each correctly-guessed word.
If a player draws a red ball, the team's turn is over and play continues with the other team. Red balls are discarded after having been drawn so that they do not return to the ball basin.
If a team obtains Lingo, that team receives 100 points and is provided with a new Lingo card with new balls. Green balls carry over to a new Lingo card, but red balls do not. Thus, at the start of a new Lingo card, there will again be three red balls in the ball basin.
Ten-letter word
Every three turns, the teams must try to guess a ten-letter word from a given anagram. As time goes on, the letters permute so that more letters are in their correct place. If a team instantly guesses the word correctly, it gets €70. As time goes by, the amount of money is reduced by €10 with each new permutation.Draw
In the first episodes of Lingo (before the introduction of the national postcode lottery), it could occur that the two teams were tied at the end of play. In that event a tie-breaker was played. Play continued the same as with a regular word, except that the turn switched between teams after each attempt and conferring was always allowed. Guessing the word correctly produced no points and you were not allowed to draw another ball.Currently, the tie-breaker has been taken away and instead replaced by the last word (played on the same basis as above). Because this word has more points than a regular word, there are no longer ties.
First version
See also No Lingo Bonus Round from the 1987-88 North American version.In the original version of Lingo transmitted by VARA, the final was faithful to the original 1987 North American version, called "No Lingo".
The team always got five chances of guessing a 5 character word of which the first and fourth character were given. Also the team had a card with 25 even or odd numbers just like in the normal rounds. At the beginning 16 numbers had already been crossed off so that Lingo was almost inevitable if a ball was drawn that was on the lingo card.
The number of attempts needed to guess the word were also the number of balls the team had to draw. i.e. 4 attempts = 4 balls. If the word was not guessed, the team had to draw 6 balls. Here as well the numbers on the balls were crossed off of the card, although not every number was on the card. At 'Lingo' the game was over and the team loses all winnings in the bonus round. If they passed the round without getting Lingo they could choose: play another round (with the chance of doubling the amount of money won, but also the chance of losing everything if 'Lingo' was called), or stop and take home the amount of money won already.
The ball barge in the final also contained a gold colored ball as well as the normal numbered blue balls. If these were drawn the team didn't have to draw anymore balls that round.
From the final the (in Holland) famous sentence was born: staat... niet op de kaart! (is... not present on the card!) which was always called if a ball was drawn which was not present on the lingo card.
Second version
The team with most of points after all the rounds continues to the final. In the final, seven words must be guessed correctly within three minutes. If that happens, the team wins €5000.Third version
In 2006, the final round was again modified, again taking from the United States version, using the 2002 version's Bonus Lingo game. (See Bonus Lingo (from the US show) for details.)Teams have two minutes to guess as many words as they can, with a five-attempt limit at a word. Each successful word guessed in the two-minute round results in the right to draw one ball.
A Lingo card is distributed with 25 numbers on it, with ten numbers (instead of the twelve in the US version) initially crossed off. The team can then draw the number of balls they won. The ball barge contains 15 blue balls. If team successfully makes a Lingo, they win €5000. There are no balls in the bin that contain a question mark. Since 6 February 2009, however, there is a silver ball present. If it is drawn, the team two has possibilities:
- 1. They win €2500 and quit.
- 2. They decline the €2500 and continue playing for the €5000.
Lingo Bingo Show
A special alternative on Lingo which was transmitted on Netherlands 1 is the Lingo Bingo Show. Here, four teams play against each other, and each team contains a Dutch celebrity.Similar to ordinary Lingo, these teams words must correctly guess words and then draw balls. The main difference is that the ball barge has five different colours of balls with the characters B, I, N, G, and O written on them in place of numbers. Every team must try to draw one ball of each colour and draw so that the word BINGO is formed.
The final is played between the two best teams. Both teams get 2.5 minutes to correctly guess as many words as possible.
Retransmissions and presentation
The programme was transmitted initially by VARA, presented by Robert de Brink and François Boulangé.In 2000, Lingo was taken over by TROS and serious changes were carried out. The duration of the programme was shortened and the 'postcode loterij' could publish the Lingo results. By both modifying the play time and significantly reducing the number of words, the points and therefore the prize money that teams can win continues to diminish. The rules of the show have also changed, particularly the final round (as previously discussed). Also, Nance
Nancy Coolen
Nancy Anna Francina Coolen, known as Nance is a Dutch TV host who was previously the lead-singer of a Eurodance group called Twenty 4 Seven....
became the new host and Michiel Eijsbouts became the new jury.
With Nance's transition from TROS to SBS in September 2005, a new host took over: Lucille Werner, who has previously hosted Get The Picture and Michiel Eijsbouts (the jury) was replaced by JP (Jan Peter Pellemans). Thus, the hosts of the show from pilot to present include:
- Robert ten BrinkRobert ten BrinkRobert ten Brink is a Dutch presenter and actor.He won the Golden TeleVizier-Ring in 1993 for All you need is love reality-TV.In 1997, he was chosen as Holland's most popular personality....
(1989–1992) - François Boulangé (1992–2000)
- NanceNancy CoolenNancy Anna Francina Coolen, known as Nance is a Dutch TV host who was previously the lead-singer of a Eurodance group called Twenty 4 Seven....
(2000–2005) - Lucille Werner (2005–present)
Jury and voiceover
At each episode of Lingo there is a jury check to see if each called word exists. Since 2000, the jury also did the announcing for the show. The show's jury includes:- Michiel Eijsbouts (2000–2005)
- Jan Peter Pellemans (JP) (2005–present)
- François Boulangé (for Lingo Bingo Show)
Until 2000, there were announcers for the introduction of each episode. The names of these announcers are unknown.
Possible moves
In October 2006, leaks from the network coordinator Ton F. van Dijk (a telejournalist for Netherlands 1) revealed that Lingo, in 2007, would move to public broadcasting. The programme drew many older viewers, whereas the new classification of the show on public broadcasting would draw a younger public, too. This caused a commotion to where even minister-president Jan Peter BalkenendeJan Peter Balkenende
Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende is a Dutch politician of the party Christian Democratic Appeal .He was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010, having led four coalition governments, cabinets Balkenende I, II, III and IV, none of which served a full...
was tempted to make official statements about the rumor.
Commercial broadcasting RTL 4 has shown interest in obtaining the rights to the show if they were abandoned by public broadcasting. TROS stated on 17 October that they will keep showing the game, but they wanted to examine how they could adapt the game for a broader public.
On the broadcast of 19 October 2006, Lucille indicated simply that Lingo will continue at TROS. Moreover, this broadcast came after a bet between Robert Jensen and Lucille. This bet implied that she would appear on TV with a deep décolletage. In return, Jensen would participate with Jan Paparazzi on an episode of Lingo. They, however, did not make it to the final.
Charities
Later on (dates are unclear), up to 2009, the Lingo show was coupled with the 'Sponsor Bingo Lottery' (a.k.a. Nationale Postcode Loterij, a national Dutch lottery). In this show the winning bingo (lottery) numbers where presented by dutch celeberaty Rick Brandsteder. He would also surprise one of the winners with a brand new car.After 2009 the Lingo show was simply called 'Lingo' again, instead of 'Postcode Lingo', Which means 'Postalcode' Lingo, referring to the fact that in the 'Nationale Postcode Loterij' people would win large prizes based on their postal/zipcode.